Drum Dancer

George Arluk (b. 1949) is an Inuit sculptor and graphic artist born in the Hudson Bay outpost camp of Kingarualik, near Chesterfield Inlet (Igluligaarjuk), Nunavut. Raised in traditional semi-nomadic camps across the Kivalliq region, he moved to Rankin Inlet (Kangiqliniq) as a youth. In Rankin Inlet, he observed local artists working at the Arts and Crafts Centre established by the federal government, where he received early guidance from artists such as Tiktak and John Kavik.

Arluk began carving stone in the late 1960s, developing a distinct visual vocabulary that bridged traditional Kivalliq sculpture with semi-abstract modernism. Working primarily with local dark steatite, basalt, and caribou antler, his work shifted from early figurative realism toward fluid, highly stylized forms characterized by negative space, sweeping curves, and interconnected human and animal figures. His subject matter focuses on mother-and-child motifs, dancing shamans, hunters, and Arctic fauna, frequently blending multiple faces and bodies into single sculptural compositions.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Arluk expanded his artistic output into graphic works, producing original drawings and prints that mirrored the rhythmic, semi-abstract compositions of his stone carvings. Over the course of his career, he lived and maintained studio practices in several northern and southern Canadian communities, including Arviat, Rankin Inlet, Churchill, and Winnipeg.

Works by Arluk are held in major public museum collections across Canada and internationally, including the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario, and the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec.